It is a win-win for all of us,” Frank said. “There are not a lot of guys left with the skills for a job like this. Otherwise, he had planned to start in Maine and work his way down the coast, looking for a boatyard who could take on the restoration. Orr’s captain Jeff Frank closed the deal to restore the Sea Lion II and put the workers on the payroll. As workers prepared to scatter to other jobs, the building and the five-man crew of master boat builders became available. So then the problem was where to have the boat restored.Īs luck would have it, Willis Marine in Stuart had just finished four grueling years building the 77-foot sport-fishing boat Uno Mas.
The three largest boat builders in South Florida - including Whiticar - turned down the restoration job, saying it was just too much for them. It was raised, towed to Allied Marine in Stuart and pulled from the water. More than 2,000 people are following the boat’s restoration on Facebook. Charles Orr, a Houston electrical contractor, stepped in to purchase the boat and restore it. There was a huge uproar on social media in 2017 when the boat was hours away from being dismembered by chainsaws. It was the best head sea boat ever and it always brought me home.”īuilt in 1963 by Whiticar Boat Works in Stuart, the 54-foot Sea Lion II sank at Jensen Beach Docks during Hurricane Irma after being impaled by pilings which left three large, gaping holes on the port side. In 1990, she was as fast as any new boat. I always felt confident, like I had a good friend in that boat. “I ran that boat for 26 years and I wish I was still running it. “In every major port we stopped, people would stop by and tell their stories of being on the boat,” said Jim Carey, who has the longest tenure of any of the boat’s captains from 1986 to 2012. The guest list is long on celebrities including former President Richard Nixon.
Sea Lion II is well-known from Mexico to the Bahamas, from Florida to Long Island, N.Y., and has been profiled on several television shows. Perhaps the most famous sport-fishing boat in history has been raised from the bottom of the Indian River Lagoon to fight monster fish for another 50 years. GREG GARDNER PHOTO Efforts underway to restore Sea Lion II to fight fish another day BY GREG GARDNER After it sank during Hurricane Irma, the legendary sport-fishing boat Sea Lion II is being rebuilt by a team of five craftsmen using Willis Marine of Stuart.
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